The genus Abies consists of about 40 species of evergreen trees found in
the northern hemisphere. Nine species of Abies, including subalpine
fir, are native to the United States . The currently accepted
scientific name of subalpine fir is Abies lasiocarpa (Hook.) Nutt.
. Subalpine fir is widely distributed and exhibits geographic
variation. Two varieties are recognized based on morphological
differences :
Abies lasiocarpa var. arizonica - corkbark fir
Abies lasiocarpa var. lasiocarpa - subalpine fir
Subalpine fir hybridizes with balsam fir (A. balsamea) where their
ranges overlap in the Canadian Rockies .

Subalpine fir is the mostly widely distributed fir in North America,
spanning more than 32 degrees of latitude . It occurs chiefly in
mountainous areas from the Yukon interior near treeline and along the
coast of southeastern Alaska south through western Alberta and British
Columbia to southern Colorado and scattered mountain ranges of Arizona
and New Mexico . In the western portion of its range, subalpine
fir does not occur along the western slope of the Coast Range in
southern British Columbia or along the Coast Ranges of Washington and
Oregon but does occur on Vancouver Island and in the Olympic Mountains
of Washington . It occurs on both slopes of the Cascade Mountains
as far south as southern Oregon . The two varieties are distributed
as follows :
var. lasiocarpa - almost the same as the species, but not in central and
southeastern Arizona.
var. arizonica - from central Colorado to southwestern New Mexico, and
in southeastern and central Arizona.
Subalpine fir and corkbark fir occur together in scattered mountain
ranges in southwestern Colorado, northern, western, and southwestern New
Mexico, and in the high mountains of Arizona .